Bearing Witness in Palestine: Who holds the key?

On Sunday we journeyed to Nablus after a home-stay at the New Askar refugee camp (see my post about Ana for more on the camp). In Nablus, we first visited the Human Supporters Association who work especially with Palestinian children in Nablus. Dani and Mohammed talked to us about how the idea of safety and security has largely vanished from the hearts and minds of Palestinian children. There is no place where they feel safe. This is, again, something that sounds familiar when talking about young children of color in the US, especially in cities. We talk about security constantly. Whether the NSA, the apartheid wall in Palestine, Trayvon Martin's murder, we also use this narrative about protecting ourselves or our state. But what does this really mean? Who are we protecting ourselves from and who is protecting those people? Is this polarization, useful, accurate and necessary or does it breed dissent and more violence?

The Human Supporters Association uses artistic methodology to fight against this dissent that occupation breeds and provide a safe space for children (or as safe as it possibly can be). They are active in the non-violent resistance movement. One action that they often do is have picnics at checkpoints to protest the lack of normalcy their lives have been stripped of. They get taken away after no more than a few minutes every time.

We took a short tour of Nablus as well. Here are a few notable moments:

Mural outside of the Human Supporters Association

The door of an old soap factory that was closed down. Nablus is famous for its soap.

Nablus city center

The poster of someone buried in the "Graveyard of Numbers," where Palestinians killed by IDF soldiers are buried and imprisoned. Their families are not permitted to keep their remains or to visit them. After 20 years and some DNA testing to prove the body's blood relationship to the family, the remains are released and they are allowed a proper burial. For more on this, read my friend and fellow delegate's piece in Mondoweiss here.

Outside of what used to be the largest soap factory in Nablus, but was destroyed, Dani tells us that his ID specifies that he is Muslim, making profiling easier.

Next we went to meet with Noor women's empowerment group and had a cooking lesson with them. Noor is located in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem. They work to empower the women in their community in various ways. For more information on what they do go here. We made some delicious sambousek and had an amazing lunch with them.

We had a tour of Aida refugee camp, which is under UN aid. Many of the refugees from Aida fled to Bethlehem after the infamous Deir Yassin massacre in 1948, some say this is what started the war that ended in Israel's "independence." The families first lived in tents, thinking they would be able to return to their homes after the war was over, but it became apparent that this was not going to happen. In 1953 the UN provided aid to build units (one unit per family of five) with shared kitchens and bathrooms. Due to movement restrictions and permit issues, they can build only up, and not out. Since they must keep water in tanks on top of their roofs, building up is limited as well since the buildings will crumble under the pressure of too many tanks. The tanks are necessary since their water is turned on only 6 hours every 2 weeks. When people want to get married and start families, they are essentially stuck with no where to go.

Many refugee families still have the original keys to their houses, even though most are demolished. The key has become a symbol of the right of return for refugees and internally displaced persons.